Category Archives: State Sovereignty

Writes Mary Pilcher-Cook: “As James Madison specified in Federalist #45, the U.S. Constitution creates a federal government of specific listed powers, not one of wide-ranging and far-reaching power that usurps the stateâ€™s authority and the rights of the people.”

As more and more of the important votes are being lost at the federal level, the fight will move to the state level and the question before our legislative leadership and the Governor will be about whether or not they will allow important statesâ€™ rights legislation to go forward.

Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Sport Shooting Association, discusses gun rights and activism in Montana, the Firearms Freedom Act and the various states where this is being passed or considered, the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, litigation in federal court, the Raich case on medical marijuana, Real ID, and the judicial branch’s disdain for the 10th Amendment.

Yielding to a rebellion by states that refused to pay for it, the Obama administration is moving to scale back a federal law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that was designed to tighten security requirements for driver’s licenses, Homeland Security Department and congressional officials said.

I believe that as much power as possible should be placed in the entities that are closest to the people and I believe this also was an important principle to our founding fathers, which is why they attempted to make this concept clear in the Tenth Amendment to our countryâ€™s Constitution.

For many, the question of American secession was settled once-and-for-all by Abraham Lincoln’s military victory against the South. Not so, writes Kirkpatrick Sale, author and director of the Mulberry Institute, a pro-secession think tank: “Of course, it is true that the particular secession of 1861-65 did not succeed, but that didn’t make it illegal or even unwise. It made it a failure, that’s all. The victory by a superior military might is not the same thing as the creation of a superior constitutional right.”

Minnesota Governor Timothy Pawlenty signed legislation on Saturday that prohibits his administration from turning the state driver’s license into a national identity card and from imposing new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants and state government.

Following the recent grand juryâ€™s announcement that more than 45 people have been charged with issuing fraudulent driversâ€™ licenses, Representative Sam Rohrer, prime sponsor of legislation to outlaw Real ID in Pennsylvania, issued the following statement

â€œFor far too long elected officials and unelected bureaucrats at the federal level have passively forgotten or actively neglected the Tenth Amendment that guarantees rights not enumerated in the Constitution be left to the individual states,â€ said Rep. Emmer. â€œThe willful disregard of the Tenth Amendment in relation to a citizenâ€™s right to bear arms isnâ€™t the only constitutional infringement that we should be worried about, but it is one that has been singled out by the new administration.â€

The Senate voted 32-0 Wednesday to advance the bill to Gov. Jay Nixon. The bill was previously passed by the House. If Nixon signs the legislation, Missouri would join 12 other states that have enacted similar anti-Real ID laws.